I couldn't go to the game against UMD, so for some reason that I'm not sure about but probably has to do with zero willpower and being kind of an idiot, I broke down and ordered BTN Plus for the month just so I could watch the game. Or sort of watch the game. I also had to pay attention to my damn wiener kids, try to see some of the Cincy/Cleveland game because gambling, and we were watching American Horror Story on the big tv. So I would say I saw 60% of the game. Here are 60% of my thoughts.
1. I think I like Carlos Morris. He's a little bit herky-jerky offensively, but it's also in a smooth way if that makes any sense at all. Think Vincent Grier or Shawn Marion. He led the team with 23 points last night and was super aggressive offensively looking for his shot. The 0-4 three point calls into question his jumper, which was already in question, and dominating less athletic, less skilled players is basically what he did in JuCo so this game was tailor made for him, but I still mostly liked what I saw. On the offensive side of the ball, that is. Defensively.......
2. The team defense was absolutely horrendous. UMD should not score nearly 70 points on 45.5% shooting against this team. But they did. The defense was brutal in every single way. Players were getting beat to the rim, the rotations were slow, often Gopher defenders were completely out of position (this happened to Morris at least 70 times last night, which means he's going to make me insane this year), and at times UMD was even in better rebounding position when they in no way should have been. The Gophers got away with it because they were bigger, stronger, faster, better, and pretty much outclassed UMD in every way, but both the effort and technical parts of defense were sorely lacking, and it wasn't hard to imagine how Iowa State (allegedly) put up 100 on them in that secret (not secret) scrimmage. Or to imagine Louisville blowing their doors off. I am 44% less excited for that game now.
3. Daquein McNeil looks legit. McNeil led both teams in scoring in the big intrasquad scrimmage and he looked the part again last night, coming off the bench to score 15 points on 6-7 shooting. Hard to believe a FIU recruit who tagged along with Richard Pitino because he needed to make sure he filled his roster now looks like a bona fide weapon off the bench in the Big Ten. But forget the shooting for a minute, there was a moment towards the end of the game which was more important. The Gophers had their last five in to wrap up the game and McNeil ended up at point guard since Nate Mason was hurt and didn't play. He took the ball, dribbled it up with a distinct swagger, made a move and drove right by his man and then dished off when help came for a Josh Martin dunk. It was beautiful, and if he's that confident, I'm that confident.
4. Elliott Eliason is still who he is. If you had hoped Eliason would develop a hook shot or a good drop step or a step back jumper or some kind of pet move it appears, based solely on last night, that you're out of luck. I'm not complaining. He brings some legit rim protection and is a high end rebounder and fills an absolutely necessary role for a Big Ten team and does it well so no complaints. I wondered if we'd see a little more going into his last year. Hopefully we still do.
5. Josh Martin is going to be your energy guy. You could probably already tell from his spastic nature on twitter and in interviews, but Martin is bundle of energy. He will also bring the house down a few times with some spectacular dunks, as the scouting reports touting his jumping and athleticism were not exaggerating. He completely outclassed UMD in those regards and was able to get a bunch of dunks, and his baseline cuts are going to become a fixture this year, but he didn't show much polish (didn't have to) so I'm curious to see what kind of game he can bring against a more legit opponent. Also, I guarantee every other Big Ten fan base is going to hate him by the end of his four years.
6. Offensive aggressiveness overall was good. Dre and Dre were looking to attack the rim, and Joey King was always looking for a shot, not to mention Carlos Morris pretty clearly thinks he can score any time he has the ball and I mean that in a good way. I'm still worried about Dre Hollins and hope that he continues looking to drive once they start playing the real teams, but last night was encouraging. If Nate Mason is what we think he is that gives the Gophers six players (including McNeil) who look to get to the rim, a handful of shooters, a legit low post scorer and defender (two different guys unfortunately), Josh Martin who's going to do some spectacular things, both good and bad, and whatever the get from Bakary Konate who I manged to not notice at all in his 13 minutes last night. Pretty solid.
Things get real in a hurry with the opener against Louisville just a week away. I fear the Gophers are going to get killed, but they've surprised me with some big wins in the past in similar early season games so I hope I'm wrong. Should be a fun season. Let's rock and or roll.
Showing posts with label Daquein McNeil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daquein McNeil. Show all posts
Friday, November 7, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Illinois 62, Minnesota 49
Ok, whatever, I'm over it. I'm surprising myself here by actually writing about this game, but I guess I'm so numb to disappointment as a Gopher fan that like, no big whoop. So here are 10 things I liked and didn't like about the Illinois game.
1. First off, the defense was fine. There are plenty of ugly stretches you can blame on the Gophers' defense this year, but last night wasn't one of them. Kendrck Nunn torched them and the Illini hit 8 of 13 threes, and giving up 1.09 points per possession isn't ideal, but then again giving up 1.09 ppp to a team that hit 62% of it's threes isn't bad. Minnesota held Illinois to 34% on 2-pointers and created a turnover on a respectable 19% of the Illini's possessions. And, contrary to brain dead Shon Morris's contention, most of those threes were tough shots. One or two might have come from a defensive breakdown (I remember one by Mo in the corner) but in general Illinois was hitting tough shots from deep. Sucks.
2. The Gopher offense was horrendous. Obvious enough to anybody watching, but Illinois played the same style defense the Gophers did, sagging in the paint to take away the drive and daring the Gophers to shoot. And boy did they fall for it. They hit a very nice 58% from 2, but took 25 freaking three pointers, hitting just four, and turned the ball over 26% of the time leading to a disastrous 0.86 points per possession which will never, ever win a game. This was one of the ugliest games I can remember watching in quite a while.
3. The whole team was embarrassingly flat last night and just totally out of it. How many balls went through hands? How many passes were off the mark? How many loose balls did the Gophers come up with? Most importantly, how the hell do you get called twice for not stepping all the way out of bounds to throw the ball in after a made Illini bucket? Twice! It rarely happens at all. The refs generally give a generous amount of leeway on that play, but the two called on the Gophers last night were so egregious the refs had no choice but to call them. I'm not even sure Eliason had one foot out of bounds on the one they called on him, let alone two. Just an embarrassing game in every respect.
4. Has Andre Hollins lost his point guard skills? I know DeAndre Mathieu is definitely the #1 point guard with Hollins the shooting guard, but wasn't the plan for Hollins to be the PG when Matheiu is on the bench? His assist numbers are drastically down, and last night he became Malik Smith, putting up 13 shots with 11 of them coming from three. Maybe it's an ankle issue, but he's looked fine the last two games, at least in that respect. The Gophers have two players who can create their own shot and create shots for others, and when one of them becomes a stand still jump shooter there are going to be problems.
5. Maybe we should do away with the autosit in the first half with two fouls. It's clear at this point that Mathieu is the team's most important player and per my previous point the offense stagnates when he's not on the floor, so maybe playing an entire 12 minutes stretch without him isn't the best thing to do. The Gophers led 14-3 when he went out with his second foul. There is nothing worse to me than sticking to dumb, rigid rules. It was clear the Gophers needed Mathieu back in before Illinois crawled all the way back, but because "the book" says to sit 'em the first half if he has two fouls he never got back off the bench. Stupid.
6. Mo Walker is becoming unstoppable. Last night 5-7 shooting for 10 points, and one of the prettiest moves I can remember seeing from any Gopher post man in quite some time. Against Maverick Morgan he was able to use his size and strength to just bull his way to the rim, and against Egwu he used great footwork, footwork I didn't know he had, to get his shots. Walker needs to become a focal point, if not the focal point, of this offense going forward, and I don't mean as the screener on pick-and-rolls. The PF picking Walker's man on one block to spring him going across the lane and establishing position on the other block needs to be a staple for this team for the next two years.
7. I started the year hating Joey King, but I seem to find myself writing positive things about him every time I write lately. His offensive game continues to blossom week-by-week as he understands more and more that the team needs him to be a power forward and not just a three point specialist. He's added a little bit of a post game, which I wrote about last time, and in this game he did a really nice job passing the ball out of the high post, even totaling what I assume is a career high 4 assists. The one thing he does that is killing me is when he pump fakes at the three point line and gets his man to leave his feet - and then does nothing or just passes it off. Freaking put the ball on the ground and move, man! Even if it's just to side step and shoot a three do something! You've gained an advantage, don't squander it.
8. King's counterpart, however, was pretty much ignored and invisible. If you watched last night the Gophers ran several pick and rolls with Oto as the screener, and none of them came close to working on any level because Illinois didn't care what Oto did. Every time he'd pop out to the wing, but Illinois's defense would just double the ball handler and force him the other way. Oto would do the right thing and cut baseline to the opposite corner, but it was such an aggressive double team I think they managed to find him exactly once for a possible shot, which ended up either a turnover or a missed shot I don't remember. Might have been nice to actually roll towards the basket and see if that opened something up elsewhere, because the way they ran this with Oto it was worthless.
9. Daquein McNeil is going to be really good. If nothing else he's going to be a heady, smart guard and a plus defender. I don't think he's ever going to be a really dynamic scorer or distributor, but he should develop into the kind of off guard who can knock down the open shot, drive if it's there, and limit his mistakes. Take that along with his tremendous defense already, which should just get better, and he's got real potential. We've seen him play good defense in spurts, and he did a great job against Drew Crawford in the Northwestern game, but now he's getting more consistent with it. I noticed last night that he does a thing Aaron Craft is really good at in that he can sneak between his man and a ball screen, reducing the need for any kind of hedge while at the same time avoiding going under the screen and giving up a possible open jumper. It's a valuable skill, and McNeil already seems to have it.
10. Now we can relax. There certainly isn't a bright side to this loss, but if you stretch far enough to can at least talk yourself into thinking you'll enjoy the games more now that you can watch the rest of the games stress free. There's now zero reason to expect the Gophers to make the NCAA Tournament this year, and the really sad thing is it's not their performance against the top tier teams that's keeping them out, but a combined 2-4 against Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, and Illinois. With a very difficult schedule the rest of the way just sit back and enjoy the ride, and enjoy speculating on what teams we might get to see at the Barn in the NIT/CBI/CIT.
It's going to be nice for me to not worry too much about it the next couple of weeks because I'm going to be on a bit of a whirlwind. Next week I will be in New Mexico for the entire week (hopefully I'll get up to some drunk posting like old times), then I'm back for half a week and off to Florida for vacation for a week and a half. So it'll be nice to not be obsessing over the Gophers. Expect posts from New Mexico for sure, and probably one or two at least from Florida, just don't expect them to be 100% Gopher stuff. Kind of liberating.
1. First off, the defense was fine. There are plenty of ugly stretches you can blame on the Gophers' defense this year, but last night wasn't one of them. Kendrck Nunn torched them and the Illini hit 8 of 13 threes, and giving up 1.09 points per possession isn't ideal, but then again giving up 1.09 ppp to a team that hit 62% of it's threes isn't bad. Minnesota held Illinois to 34% on 2-pointers and created a turnover on a respectable 19% of the Illini's possessions. And, contrary to brain dead Shon Morris's contention, most of those threes were tough shots. One or two might have come from a defensive breakdown (I remember one by Mo in the corner) but in general Illinois was hitting tough shots from deep. Sucks.
2. The Gopher offense was horrendous. Obvious enough to anybody watching, but Illinois played the same style defense the Gophers did, sagging in the paint to take away the drive and daring the Gophers to shoot. And boy did they fall for it. They hit a very nice 58% from 2, but took 25 freaking three pointers, hitting just four, and turned the ball over 26% of the time leading to a disastrous 0.86 points per possession which will never, ever win a game. This was one of the ugliest games I can remember watching in quite a while.
3. The whole team was embarrassingly flat last night and just totally out of it. How many balls went through hands? How many passes were off the mark? How many loose balls did the Gophers come up with? Most importantly, how the hell do you get called twice for not stepping all the way out of bounds to throw the ball in after a made Illini bucket? Twice! It rarely happens at all. The refs generally give a generous amount of leeway on that play, but the two called on the Gophers last night were so egregious the refs had no choice but to call them. I'm not even sure Eliason had one foot out of bounds on the one they called on him, let alone two. Just an embarrassing game in every respect.
4. Has Andre Hollins lost his point guard skills? I know DeAndre Mathieu is definitely the #1 point guard with Hollins the shooting guard, but wasn't the plan for Hollins to be the PG when Matheiu is on the bench? His assist numbers are drastically down, and last night he became Malik Smith, putting up 13 shots with 11 of them coming from three. Maybe it's an ankle issue, but he's looked fine the last two games, at least in that respect. The Gophers have two players who can create their own shot and create shots for others, and when one of them becomes a stand still jump shooter there are going to be problems.
5. Maybe we should do away with the autosit in the first half with two fouls. It's clear at this point that Mathieu is the team's most important player and per my previous point the offense stagnates when he's not on the floor, so maybe playing an entire 12 minutes stretch without him isn't the best thing to do. The Gophers led 14-3 when he went out with his second foul. There is nothing worse to me than sticking to dumb, rigid rules. It was clear the Gophers needed Mathieu back in before Illinois crawled all the way back, but because "the book" says to sit 'em the first half if he has two fouls he never got back off the bench. Stupid.
6. Mo Walker is becoming unstoppable. Last night 5-7 shooting for 10 points, and one of the prettiest moves I can remember seeing from any Gopher post man in quite some time. Against Maverick Morgan he was able to use his size and strength to just bull his way to the rim, and against Egwu he used great footwork, footwork I didn't know he had, to get his shots. Walker needs to become a focal point, if not the focal point, of this offense going forward, and I don't mean as the screener on pick-and-rolls. The PF picking Walker's man on one block to spring him going across the lane and establishing position on the other block needs to be a staple for this team for the next two years.
7. I started the year hating Joey King, but I seem to find myself writing positive things about him every time I write lately. His offensive game continues to blossom week-by-week as he understands more and more that the team needs him to be a power forward and not just a three point specialist. He's added a little bit of a post game, which I wrote about last time, and in this game he did a really nice job passing the ball out of the high post, even totaling what I assume is a career high 4 assists. The one thing he does that is killing me is when he pump fakes at the three point line and gets his man to leave his feet - and then does nothing or just passes it off. Freaking put the ball on the ground and move, man! Even if it's just to side step and shoot a three do something! You've gained an advantage, don't squander it.
8. King's counterpart, however, was pretty much ignored and invisible. If you watched last night the Gophers ran several pick and rolls with Oto as the screener, and none of them came close to working on any level because Illinois didn't care what Oto did. Every time he'd pop out to the wing, but Illinois's defense would just double the ball handler and force him the other way. Oto would do the right thing and cut baseline to the opposite corner, but it was such an aggressive double team I think they managed to find him exactly once for a possible shot, which ended up either a turnover or a missed shot I don't remember. Might have been nice to actually roll towards the basket and see if that opened something up elsewhere, because the way they ran this with Oto it was worthless.
9. Daquein McNeil is going to be really good. If nothing else he's going to be a heady, smart guard and a plus defender. I don't think he's ever going to be a really dynamic scorer or distributor, but he should develop into the kind of off guard who can knock down the open shot, drive if it's there, and limit his mistakes. Take that along with his tremendous defense already, which should just get better, and he's got real potential. We've seen him play good defense in spurts, and he did a great job against Drew Crawford in the Northwestern game, but now he's getting more consistent with it. I noticed last night that he does a thing Aaron Craft is really good at in that he can sneak between his man and a ball screen, reducing the need for any kind of hedge while at the same time avoiding going under the screen and giving up a possible open jumper. It's a valuable skill, and McNeil already seems to have it.
10. Now we can relax. There certainly isn't a bright side to this loss, but if you stretch far enough to can at least talk yourself into thinking you'll enjoy the games more now that you can watch the rest of the games stress free. There's now zero reason to expect the Gophers to make the NCAA Tournament this year, and the really sad thing is it's not their performance against the top tier teams that's keeping them out, but a combined 2-4 against Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, and Illinois. With a very difficult schedule the rest of the way just sit back and enjoy the ride, and enjoy speculating on what teams we might get to see at the Barn in the NIT/CBI/CIT.
It's going to be nice for me to not worry too much about it the next couple of weeks because I'm going to be on a bit of a whirlwind. Next week I will be in New Mexico for the entire week (hopefully I'll get up to some drunk posting like old times), then I'm back for half a week and off to Florida for vacation for a week and a half. So it'll be nice to not be obsessing over the Gophers. Expect posts from New Mexico for sure, and probably one or two at least from Florida, just don't expect them to be 100% Gopher stuff. Kind of liberating.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Northwestern 55, Gophers 54
Am I really supposed to write about this game? I've now had an entire day, including a very unsatisfying Super Bowl, to get over the disappointment and I still don't want to write about. However I am pretty sure if I pass on writing on this game I will just quit altogether and as much as I'd like to do that I don't want to do that. So here is a very quick 10 Things I Liked and Didn't Like. Unless I do that thing I sometimes do where I just vomit words all over the screen, then it won't be short.
1. Meet the old boss, same as the new boss? There are a whole lot of things I like about Richard Pitino when compared directly to Tubby Smith. Energy. Players improving. Uptempo game. More imaginative offense. Gameplanning for specific opponents. I am a fan. A big fan. But what is this shit where February is just a shit bath every year? I don't care that Northwestern has some good wins lately and is looking frisky, you don't lose to them at home. There recent success has seen their RPI creep up into the top 100 (#83) so technically this won't go down as a bad loss, but this was a bad loss. I will get into NCAA bid chances later, but even if this one didn't hurt as much as you'd think because of that non-horrible RPI, it really hurts because this is a game you just don't lose if you're an NCAA team.
2. The Gophers got shredded by a terrible offense. Northwestern has shown some success lately due to their tough defense, not a good offense. The Wildcats scored 1.02 points per possession and shot 48% from two and 38% from three. Their season numbers are 0.96, 46.5%, and 30%. Their in-conference numbers are 0.87, 45%, and 27%. They have been awful all year and even worse in Big Ten play, and they lit the Gophers up (at least comparatively). I will grant that Northwestern seemed to hit an awful lot of tough shots, but that shouldn't make a difference. Horrendous defense, and it's been a problem all year. This, however, was the worst.
3. Whining about the refs is really not the way to go. Did the refs miss a foul call on Mathieu and/or Walker at the conclusion of the game? Seems like a strong possibility. I haven't gone back and watched it because I have better things to do like impale each of my fingers with a bamboo skewer, but I've read enough, even from none raging homers, that it sounds like a case can be made that both were fouled. Doesn't matter. First of all, they both had lay-ups and even with a minor foul those shots need to be made. Secondly, the Gophers played so shitty that leaving the final result to the refs is their own fault for letting it get to that point. There are one billion things to worry about from this game before you get to the refs. Not an exaggeration.
4. This team is still way too careless with the ball. I know it seems weird to complain about turnovers after a game where the Gophers only turned it over 8 times and on a percentage basis were below their season average and even below Northwestern's defensive season average, but they're just so careless sometimes. There are turnovers where a team's pressure forces you into bad situations, and then there are turnovers where you just give the ball away for no real reason at all and the Gophers' turnovers yesterday were almost exclusively the latter. I mean you just can't turn the ball over on a simple post entry when the defender isn't even attempting to deny the pass, and that happened at least 3 times with two passes going through Mo Walker's legs like he was some shitty hockey goalie guy. Northwestern doesn't care if they turn you over, so there's no reason to help them out.
5. On the positive side, Austin Hollis appears to be registering a pulse again. 13 points on 5-10 shooting, five rebounds, two assists, and three steals with zero turnovers. Most importantly he looked confident again. Starting with the open scrimmage thing and carrying into the early season Hollins was carrying himself with some serious senior swagger and in general that bodes well for a breakout type final year. I have no idea what happened or when, but he lost all that. The crazy thing about watching college kids is you never quite know what's happening. His girlfriend could have broken up with him or he's struggling in chemistry or he discovered weed (Sammy J -> hi), it could be anything but he just didn't look the same on the court. He still can't shoot for shit, but he's finally doing that thing where he flies all over the floor and grabs boards and gets steals. That's a bunch of games in a row now where he's looked like the old Austin, and with Dre still out hopefully he keeps that up and forgets about that devil woman or derivatives or precipitates or whatever.
6. Daquein McNeil looked pretty good. I was impressed. He played a career high of 24 minutes on Saturday (previous high was 13) and although the box score doesn't jump out at your stupid face if you watched him he looked good for an unheralded freshman. He's clearly passed Maverick on the point guard depth chart, which is a good thing considering outside of a wide open shot Mav is basically a complete disaster with the ball in his hands, and after some early season jitters he seems to have settled in and belies a calm beyond his years. I mentioned to Snacks that McNeil was started to look like he might end up a pretty decent Big Ten player, and we wondered how good he would have ended up being in the Sun Belt or wherever the hell FIU plays. There was a lot of understandable skepticism about a Sun Belt recruit suddenly being taken to the Big Ten and I wasn't sure about it myself, but I'm now glad he ended up a Gopher. I'm sure Dawger still prefers Maverick, but he also thinks Cal Ripken was overrated so what are you gonna do?
7. The Gophers have developed a couple of pet plays and I like them both a lot. The first is pretty basic, but you have to have the right personnel and the Gophers do with Mo Walker. A guard simply enters the ball to Walker at the free throw line and he turns and looks for a baseline cutter. Walker has the basketball savvy and passing skill to make this work (skills that were evident his freshman year as well, unlike his sudden ability to dominate the paint and score like it's his job). This worked a few times against Northwestern which was surprising considering how fundamentally sound they usually are. If the Gophers had won I would probably go back and rewatch these to see how it happened, but as it stands I'd rather rewatch World War Z than this game so forget it. The other play they will break out 2-3 times a game and it's the one they used to get Malik Smith that huge three pointer against Michigan. Dre Mathieu will drive from the right side and take the ball baseline, while two shooters spot up on the opposite side - one in the corner and the other on the wing. With the defense collapsing to stop the drive one of them almost always seems to be open. It seemed to be the corner guy earlier in the season, but as teams have gotten more tape on the play usually it's the wing guy these days, and luckily Mathieu seems to make the right decision. It would be a better play if anybody could shoot on this team, but I like it anyway.
8. Tre Demps is a stone cold assassin. Demps is becoming the kind of guy who you can look at the stats and laugh and stuff but god damn would I love him on my team. Much like Malik Smith is a chucker but he's our chucker, Demps is the same for Northwestern except he's been hitting huge shot after huge shot. Three pointer against the Gophers in a tie game with 54 seconds remaining. Five points and three assists in a four minute span against Wisconsin to give Northwestern control of the game. Game tying 3-pointer with a minute left in overtime against Purdue and then 4-4 on free throws in double OT to close it out. Thirteen straight points at the end of the game against Indiana. Three 3-pointers in a row down the stretch against Illinois. In every single Northwestern Big Ten win this year, and there are a shocking number of them, you can find a stretch where Demps controlled the game for the Wildcats, whether it was a single huge shot or a stretch where he carried their offense. Guy is just owning the Big Ten right now.
9. This team desperately needs Andre Hollins back. It sounds like it's possible he'll be back for Purdue, but more likely Indiana and it can't happen soon enough. I love DeAndre Mathieu a lot, but he's better when he's not forced into being the only creator, and with Hollins down he's the only one who can get into the paint off the dribble. Not to mention he's your best shooter, one of your top defenders, and the clear team leader. I was hoping the team could tread water while they waited for him to get healthy, but this has been more like treading bricks.
10. NCAA hopes aren't dead or anything so calm down nancy. This loss was definitely a hit, but as it currently stands (per ESPN) the RPI is 37 and Strength of Schedule still a robust #6. The Gophers are 2-3 vs. the RPI Top 25, 4-4 vs. the Top 50, and 5-8 vs. the Top 100 - these are all good numbers. Thanks to Northwestern's RPI jump, the Gophers still don't have a bad loss (outside the Top 100), and that's probably just as relevant as anything else on their resume. The issue now is that the home game vs. Northwestern was one everyone was counting on as a win, and with them dropping the game at Nebraska as well suddenly the margin for error is razor thin. The Gophers probably need five more wins, and now only the home games against Penn State and Illinois look like "sure" wins. The next two games are huge, @Purdue and home vs. Indiana. The Gophers don't necessarily need to win both, but it would be awfully nice and then they'd only need to "steal" one of the remaining five games, which is doable. On the one hand, it's nice to even worry about this because I wasn't sure the Gophers would even be a bubble team at the start of the year. On the other hand, this sucks because one week ago the Gophers weren't a bubble team but were solidly in the tournament. Looks like this year is going to be like every other, down to the bubble wire. I really need a year where this isn't the case.
1. Meet the old boss, same as the new boss? There are a whole lot of things I like about Richard Pitino when compared directly to Tubby Smith. Energy. Players improving. Uptempo game. More imaginative offense. Gameplanning for specific opponents. I am a fan. A big fan. But what is this shit where February is just a shit bath every year? I don't care that Northwestern has some good wins lately and is looking frisky, you don't lose to them at home. There recent success has seen their RPI creep up into the top 100 (#83) so technically this won't go down as a bad loss, but this was a bad loss. I will get into NCAA bid chances later, but even if this one didn't hurt as much as you'd think because of that non-horrible RPI, it really hurts because this is a game you just don't lose if you're an NCAA team.
2. The Gophers got shredded by a terrible offense. Northwestern has shown some success lately due to their tough defense, not a good offense. The Wildcats scored 1.02 points per possession and shot 48% from two and 38% from three. Their season numbers are 0.96, 46.5%, and 30%. Their in-conference numbers are 0.87, 45%, and 27%. They have been awful all year and even worse in Big Ten play, and they lit the Gophers up (at least comparatively). I will grant that Northwestern seemed to hit an awful lot of tough shots, but that shouldn't make a difference. Horrendous defense, and it's been a problem all year. This, however, was the worst.
3. Whining about the refs is really not the way to go. Did the refs miss a foul call on Mathieu and/or Walker at the conclusion of the game? Seems like a strong possibility. I haven't gone back and watched it because I have better things to do like impale each of my fingers with a bamboo skewer, but I've read enough, even from none raging homers, that it sounds like a case can be made that both were fouled. Doesn't matter. First of all, they both had lay-ups and even with a minor foul those shots need to be made. Secondly, the Gophers played so shitty that leaving the final result to the refs is their own fault for letting it get to that point. There are one billion things to worry about from this game before you get to the refs. Not an exaggeration.
4. This team is still way too careless with the ball. I know it seems weird to complain about turnovers after a game where the Gophers only turned it over 8 times and on a percentage basis were below their season average and even below Northwestern's defensive season average, but they're just so careless sometimes. There are turnovers where a team's pressure forces you into bad situations, and then there are turnovers where you just give the ball away for no real reason at all and the Gophers' turnovers yesterday were almost exclusively the latter. I mean you just can't turn the ball over on a simple post entry when the defender isn't even attempting to deny the pass, and that happened at least 3 times with two passes going through Mo Walker's legs like he was some shitty hockey goalie guy. Northwestern doesn't care if they turn you over, so there's no reason to help them out.
5. On the positive side, Austin Hollis appears to be registering a pulse again. 13 points on 5-10 shooting, five rebounds, two assists, and three steals with zero turnovers. Most importantly he looked confident again. Starting with the open scrimmage thing and carrying into the early season Hollins was carrying himself with some serious senior swagger and in general that bodes well for a breakout type final year. I have no idea what happened or when, but he lost all that. The crazy thing about watching college kids is you never quite know what's happening. His girlfriend could have broken up with him or he's struggling in chemistry or he discovered weed (Sammy J -> hi), it could be anything but he just didn't look the same on the court. He still can't shoot for shit, but he's finally doing that thing where he flies all over the floor and grabs boards and gets steals. That's a bunch of games in a row now where he's looked like the old Austin, and with Dre still out hopefully he keeps that up and forgets about that devil woman or derivatives or precipitates or whatever.
6. Daquein McNeil looked pretty good. I was impressed. He played a career high of 24 minutes on Saturday (previous high was 13) and although the box score doesn't jump out at your stupid face if you watched him he looked good for an unheralded freshman. He's clearly passed Maverick on the point guard depth chart, which is a good thing considering outside of a wide open shot Mav is basically a complete disaster with the ball in his hands, and after some early season jitters he seems to have settled in and belies a calm beyond his years. I mentioned to Snacks that McNeil was started to look like he might end up a pretty decent Big Ten player, and we wondered how good he would have ended up being in the Sun Belt or wherever the hell FIU plays. There was a lot of understandable skepticism about a Sun Belt recruit suddenly being taken to the Big Ten and I wasn't sure about it myself, but I'm now glad he ended up a Gopher. I'm sure Dawger still prefers Maverick, but he also thinks Cal Ripken was overrated so what are you gonna do?
7. The Gophers have developed a couple of pet plays and I like them both a lot. The first is pretty basic, but you have to have the right personnel and the Gophers do with Mo Walker. A guard simply enters the ball to Walker at the free throw line and he turns and looks for a baseline cutter. Walker has the basketball savvy and passing skill to make this work (skills that were evident his freshman year as well, unlike his sudden ability to dominate the paint and score like it's his job). This worked a few times against Northwestern which was surprising considering how fundamentally sound they usually are. If the Gophers had won I would probably go back and rewatch these to see how it happened, but as it stands I'd rather rewatch World War Z than this game so forget it. The other play they will break out 2-3 times a game and it's the one they used to get Malik Smith that huge three pointer against Michigan. Dre Mathieu will drive from the right side and take the ball baseline, while two shooters spot up on the opposite side - one in the corner and the other on the wing. With the defense collapsing to stop the drive one of them almost always seems to be open. It seemed to be the corner guy earlier in the season, but as teams have gotten more tape on the play usually it's the wing guy these days, and luckily Mathieu seems to make the right decision. It would be a better play if anybody could shoot on this team, but I like it anyway.
8. Tre Demps is a stone cold assassin. Demps is becoming the kind of guy who you can look at the stats and laugh and stuff but god damn would I love him on my team. Much like Malik Smith is a chucker but he's our chucker, Demps is the same for Northwestern except he's been hitting huge shot after huge shot. Three pointer against the Gophers in a tie game with 54 seconds remaining. Five points and three assists in a four minute span against Wisconsin to give Northwestern control of the game. Game tying 3-pointer with a minute left in overtime against Purdue and then 4-4 on free throws in double OT to close it out. Thirteen straight points at the end of the game against Indiana. Three 3-pointers in a row down the stretch against Illinois. In every single Northwestern Big Ten win this year, and there are a shocking number of them, you can find a stretch where Demps controlled the game for the Wildcats, whether it was a single huge shot or a stretch where he carried their offense. Guy is just owning the Big Ten right now.
9. This team desperately needs Andre Hollins back. It sounds like it's possible he'll be back for Purdue, but more likely Indiana and it can't happen soon enough. I love DeAndre Mathieu a lot, but he's better when he's not forced into being the only creator, and with Hollins down he's the only one who can get into the paint off the dribble. Not to mention he's your best shooter, one of your top defenders, and the clear team leader. I was hoping the team could tread water while they waited for him to get healthy, but this has been more like treading bricks.
10. NCAA hopes aren't dead or anything so calm down nancy. This loss was definitely a hit, but as it currently stands (per ESPN) the RPI is 37 and Strength of Schedule still a robust #6. The Gophers are 2-3 vs. the RPI Top 25, 4-4 vs. the Top 50, and 5-8 vs. the Top 100 - these are all good numbers. Thanks to Northwestern's RPI jump, the Gophers still don't have a bad loss (outside the Top 100), and that's probably just as relevant as anything else on their resume. The issue now is that the home game vs. Northwestern was one everyone was counting on as a win, and with them dropping the game at Nebraska as well suddenly the margin for error is razor thin. The Gophers probably need five more wins, and now only the home games against Penn State and Illinois look like "sure" wins. The next two games are huge, @Purdue and home vs. Indiana. The Gophers don't necessarily need to win both, but it would be awfully nice and then they'd only need to "steal" one of the remaining five games, which is doable. On the one hand, it's nice to even worry about this because I wasn't sure the Gophers would even be a bubble team at the start of the year. On the other hand, this sucks because one week ago the Gophers weren't a bubble team but were solidly in the tournament. Looks like this year is going to be like every other, down to the bubble wire. I really need a year where this isn't the case.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Gophers 63, Ohio State 53
I had really hoped the Gophers would manage to snag one win out of this brutal four game stretch, and here it is - so now I hope they can get two. Sure, this win loses a little bit of luster since it was Ohio State's third straight loss, but they're going to be fine and this will still end up as a big time signature win at the end of the year.
Once again, 10 things I liked and didn't like about the game:
1. I never thought I'd type this sentence this season, but the Gophers dominated the inside. How good was Eliason yesterday? No, his footwork is never going to make you think of Olajuwon, but he's managed to harness his post up game into something good enough to at least make defenses pay attention to him, and his rebounding and defense have been absolutely top notch this year to the point where he has a legitimate case as Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year if they hadn't already decided to give it to Aaron Craft before the season started. Also have to mention Mo Walker last night, who did more good for this team in a 60 second span than he has the rest of his career combined. I knew Ohio State had some issues in the paint but Amir Williams is Rickert-soft, and the Gophers bigs made the Buckeyes pay.
2. The half-court offense was top notch. I said the Gophers would need to take advantage in transition if they were going to try to compete, but once again it shows why I'm not a coach and instead just write about basketball while drunk. I was concerned the Gophers would do that thing where they rely on the 3-ball in the half court and with OSU's perimeter defense that was never going to work. Well it didn't work as they made just 3, but they didn't rely on it either, shooting only 14. Instead they worked the ball around, were more patient than I can remember this team being - ever - and found good shots to where they shot 64% on two-point shots. 64%!!!! That's insane. Great game.
3. I don't think I'll ever feel comfortable with the power forward spot. Oto had a decent game, and I do like that he seems to have become the dude on the team who won't take any shit from anybody (something about having an Eastern Europeaner as the "enforcer" feels right), but it seems just about impossible for me to feel comfortable when he's in the game. What's worse, is that I actually audibly groan when he's taken out because King is even worse. I guess what I'm saying is, screw you NCAA for not giving us our Buckles (averaging 13 and 9 for FIU).
4. The defensive game plan was solid too. The pressure was soft with little to no trapping, which is a good plan against Craft and Shannon Scott if you're going to insist on pressing at all (and we know Pitino does) and half court was strictly zone, forcing the Buckeyes to beat you from the outside. I mentioned in my preview that this was a good plan, and it worked well with solid rotations in most cases and good overall fundamental defense. Their was a bit of an issue with LaQuinton Ross getting the ball at the free throw line and being able to score from there (he had 22) but they didn't let Craft or Scott beat them with penetration for the most part and the rebounded very well. Excellent game on both ends, both in planning and execution.
5. Craft and Scott are as good as advertised defensively. For all the hype I still came away impressed. Very quick feet, fundamentally sound, and both have about the quickest hands I can remember seeing. They also both have the basketball smarts to "jump routes" for lack of a better term, and each did it with success last night. I was also impressed with Craft's ability to go over a screen but slip between his man and the screener so he doesn't give up any ground. One other thing I noticed was that when the man they're guarding picks up the ball to pass sometimes rather than jump at him they'll jump back to try to get into the passing lane from close up, not every time, but it's not something I can recall seeing many guards do.
6. Daquein McNeil has clearly jumped Maverick in the rotation. Once again McNeil got the playing time that could have gone to Ahanmisi, and it's clear at this point that Pitino prefers the freshman. Could simply be he knows neither of them is great now, but McNeil figures into his future plans while Mav is gone after this season. McNeil certainly looks every bit the part of a freshman playing in the Big Ten for the first time, but to be fair most of the time so does Maverick. All I know is Dawger thinks it should be Mav, which pretty much tells me that going with McNeil in those spots is the absolute right move.
7. I have no idea what's going on with Austin Hollins. He did finally seem to snap out of his funk or whatever when he got his own rebound off a missed free throw and put it back in, later making a couple more FTs and getting a key steal, but he just looked lost out there for much of this game and really outside of the Purdue game hasn't been much of a factor in Big Ten play - or at least not a positive factor. At this point he seems to be having trouble with basic skills like dribbling and catching, and it's really weird. I don't know if it's a confidence issue or what, but given that Pitino seems to have raised the confidence level of pretty much every other player that seems unlikely. I'm going to chalk it up to he's pressing a bit given it's his senior year, and assume at some point the real Austin Hollins comes back. That would be helpful.
8. Did you ever think a late signing, 5-9 Juco point guard would be this good? I know I didn't, but thank god for the Honey Gopher who has clearly taken the point guard position over and allowed Dre Hollins to move to the #2, a move that helps the team immensely. There was a string there in the second half when it looked like Ohio State might be making a move, but Mathieu hit a couple of short jumpers in order to keep the Gophers ahead - as big as Mo's big stretch was, Mathieu's might have been even bigger. His assist to Dre to hit that monster three towards the end of the game was a thing of beauty, and a sign of a perfect match of player to coach as, in reality, the best move may have been to slow things down and run clock, but Mathieu has the freedom to run and create, and it worked to perfection. He's one of the most fun players to watch I can remember in a while. If you ever hear anyone say that Honey Gopher needs to slow down or play more in control I'm going to need you to hit them in the face with a shovel. Please. I don't ask you for much.
9. Turnovers remain an issue. 18 turnovers and a 29% turnover rate is absolutely horrendous, and pulling out a win despite those numbers just shows how well every other facet of the game went for the Gophers last night. In their five Big Ten games the Gophers are turning the ball over 21.8% of the time, dead last in the conference. This might be skewed a bit because the Gophers have already played the top two defenses in the conference in Michigan State and Ohio State, but no doubt this is a major concern.
10. An NCAA bid now becomes a very reasonable goal. The Gophers are now 14-4 and 3-2 in conference play, with an RPI of 26 and SoS of 13 (per ESPN), and two wins already over RPI Top 25 teams (Ohio State, Florida State) - those are some pretty awesome numbers, and based on the fact that the SoS will probably go up rather than down and the RPI is so good right now, I'll say nine Big Ten wins gets the Gophers in. Simple math says that means six more victories. These games are there for the taking: @Nebraska, Northwestern, @Northwestern, Illinois, Indiana, and Penn State. Those games will likely see the Gophers favored, and those are your six wins right there. There is also Purdue on the road which is certainly winnable. If the Gophers win all those they're in. If they lose one and win at Purdue they're in. And if they manage to win any of the other games, any at all, any other major upset, and it would take a pretty bad collapse to keep them out.
So, you know. Let's not do that.
Once again, 10 things I liked and didn't like about the game:
1. I never thought I'd type this sentence this season, but the Gophers dominated the inside. How good was Eliason yesterday? No, his footwork is never going to make you think of Olajuwon, but he's managed to harness his post up game into something good enough to at least make defenses pay attention to him, and his rebounding and defense have been absolutely top notch this year to the point where he has a legitimate case as Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year if they hadn't already decided to give it to Aaron Craft before the season started. Also have to mention Mo Walker last night, who did more good for this team in a 60 second span than he has the rest of his career combined. I knew Ohio State had some issues in the paint but Amir Williams is Rickert-soft, and the Gophers bigs made the Buckeyes pay.
2. The half-court offense was top notch. I said the Gophers would need to take advantage in transition if they were going to try to compete, but once again it shows why I'm not a coach and instead just write about basketball while drunk. I was concerned the Gophers would do that thing where they rely on the 3-ball in the half court and with OSU's perimeter defense that was never going to work. Well it didn't work as they made just 3, but they didn't rely on it either, shooting only 14. Instead they worked the ball around, were more patient than I can remember this team being - ever - and found good shots to where they shot 64% on two-point shots. 64%!!!! That's insane. Great game.
3. I don't think I'll ever feel comfortable with the power forward spot. Oto had a decent game, and I do like that he seems to have become the dude on the team who won't take any shit from anybody (something about having an Eastern Europeaner as the "enforcer" feels right), but it seems just about impossible for me to feel comfortable when he's in the game. What's worse, is that I actually audibly groan when he's taken out because King is even worse. I guess what I'm saying is, screw you NCAA for not giving us our Buckles (averaging 13 and 9 for FIU).
4. The defensive game plan was solid too. The pressure was soft with little to no trapping, which is a good plan against Craft and Shannon Scott if you're going to insist on pressing at all (and we know Pitino does) and half court was strictly zone, forcing the Buckeyes to beat you from the outside. I mentioned in my preview that this was a good plan, and it worked well with solid rotations in most cases and good overall fundamental defense. Their was a bit of an issue with LaQuinton Ross getting the ball at the free throw line and being able to score from there (he had 22) but they didn't let Craft or Scott beat them with penetration for the most part and the rebounded very well. Excellent game on both ends, both in planning and execution.
5. Craft and Scott are as good as advertised defensively. For all the hype I still came away impressed. Very quick feet, fundamentally sound, and both have about the quickest hands I can remember seeing. They also both have the basketball smarts to "jump routes" for lack of a better term, and each did it with success last night. I was also impressed with Craft's ability to go over a screen but slip between his man and the screener so he doesn't give up any ground. One other thing I noticed was that when the man they're guarding picks up the ball to pass sometimes rather than jump at him they'll jump back to try to get into the passing lane from close up, not every time, but it's not something I can recall seeing many guards do.
6. Daquein McNeil has clearly jumped Maverick in the rotation. Once again McNeil got the playing time that could have gone to Ahanmisi, and it's clear at this point that Pitino prefers the freshman. Could simply be he knows neither of them is great now, but McNeil figures into his future plans while Mav is gone after this season. McNeil certainly looks every bit the part of a freshman playing in the Big Ten for the first time, but to be fair most of the time so does Maverick. All I know is Dawger thinks it should be Mav, which pretty much tells me that going with McNeil in those spots is the absolute right move.
7. I have no idea what's going on with Austin Hollins. He did finally seem to snap out of his funk or whatever when he got his own rebound off a missed free throw and put it back in, later making a couple more FTs and getting a key steal, but he just looked lost out there for much of this game and really outside of the Purdue game hasn't been much of a factor in Big Ten play - or at least not a positive factor. At this point he seems to be having trouble with basic skills like dribbling and catching, and it's really weird. I don't know if it's a confidence issue or what, but given that Pitino seems to have raised the confidence level of pretty much every other player that seems unlikely. I'm going to chalk it up to he's pressing a bit given it's his senior year, and assume at some point the real Austin Hollins comes back. That would be helpful.
8. Did you ever think a late signing, 5-9 Juco point guard would be this good? I know I didn't, but thank god for the Honey Gopher who has clearly taken the point guard position over and allowed Dre Hollins to move to the #2, a move that helps the team immensely. There was a string there in the second half when it looked like Ohio State might be making a move, but Mathieu hit a couple of short jumpers in order to keep the Gophers ahead - as big as Mo's big stretch was, Mathieu's might have been even bigger. His assist to Dre to hit that monster three towards the end of the game was a thing of beauty, and a sign of a perfect match of player to coach as, in reality, the best move may have been to slow things down and run clock, but Mathieu has the freedom to run and create, and it worked to perfection. He's one of the most fun players to watch I can remember in a while. If you ever hear anyone say that Honey Gopher needs to slow down or play more in control I'm going to need you to hit them in the face with a shovel. Please. I don't ask you for much.
9. Turnovers remain an issue. 18 turnovers and a 29% turnover rate is absolutely horrendous, and pulling out a win despite those numbers just shows how well every other facet of the game went for the Gophers last night. In their five Big Ten games the Gophers are turning the ball over 21.8% of the time, dead last in the conference. This might be skewed a bit because the Gophers have already played the top two defenses in the conference in Michigan State and Ohio State, but no doubt this is a major concern.
10. An NCAA bid now becomes a very reasonable goal. The Gophers are now 14-4 and 3-2 in conference play, with an RPI of 26 and SoS of 13 (per ESPN), and two wins already over RPI Top 25 teams (Ohio State, Florida State) - those are some pretty awesome numbers, and based on the fact that the SoS will probably go up rather than down and the RPI is so good right now, I'll say nine Big Ten wins gets the Gophers in. Simple math says that means six more victories. These games are there for the taking: @Nebraska, Northwestern, @Northwestern, Illinois, Indiana, and Penn State. Those games will likely see the Gophers favored, and those are your six wins right there. There is also Purdue on the road which is certainly winnable. If the Gophers win all those they're in. If they lose one and win at Purdue they're in. And if they manage to win any of the other games, any at all, any other major upset, and it would take a pretty bad collapse to keep them out.
So, you know. Let's not do that.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Gophers 82, Purdue 79
A win is a win, right? The Gophers looked absolutely dominant for a while, but naturally that couldn't last. As Snacks said, when the Gophers were up 6 with 25 seconds left I kept wondering how they were going to blow it, whereas if Purdue was up 6 with 25 seconds left I would have already left the building conceding a loss. The life of a Gopher (and Minnesota sports in general) fan is not a pretty one. Anyway I don't really give a crap that they nearly blew the game and won by just 3, they won. Good enough for me.
Once again, here are 10 things I liked and didn't like:
1. Defense in the first 30 minutes. Now, to be fair, for the first 30 minutes Painter's team looked suspiciously like an old Tubby team (may be a bit of a cheap shot but honestly that's what it looked like), but the Gophers did an excellent job of limiting Purdue, a big reason they opened up nearly a 20 point lead. They kept Purdue out of the paint and turned them into a jump shooting team, which is not a strength of the Boilers. Their offense mainly consisted of swinging the ball around the perimeter and, even when the managed to get it to the man at the free throw line the ball generally came right back out again quickly. A.J. Hammons got a couple of touches down low and was reasonably effective, but the Gophers limited those as well. The zone did what it was supposed to do for 30 minutes, and that was great.
2. Defense in the last ten minutes. At the 9:50 mark, in mid-possession, Painter took a time out. I don't know what he said or how he said it, but from that point on the Boilers did nothing but attack attack attack. They picked up the pace after both misses and makes, and when they did have to settle into the half court there was no more perimeter work, it was all dribble drives - and it worked. Purdue outscored the Gophers 34-20 from that point, and dam near ended up stealing the game. From 9:50 - 2:50, before things got a bit more desperate on their end, they only took 2 three-pointers, preferring to get into the lane, as they should. The Gophers' interior defense is always going to be a concern, and it was again big time at the end of this game.
3. Draustin Hollins got their swerve back. This one is obvious to anybody who either watched the game or glanced at the box score, but one game after both Hollins brothers played the worst game of their career they were back in a big way. Dre scored 17 and had 5 assists, and Austin scored 18 to go with 9 rebounds. Maybe more importantly, both showed the same confidence they had in the past so they aren't suffering any ill effects from being utterly horrible against Michigan. Not that I necessarily expected them to, but then again remember Nick Anderson. It's not exactly a secret that the Gophers need these two in order to win games, so hopefully they got all the horribleness out of their system in that one game.
4. Daquean McNeil looked goodish? Due to Honey Gopher and Malik Smith picking up two fouls each in the first half, causing Pitino to put out some goofy lineups (hopefully we never see McNeil, Ahanmisi, King, Walker, and Smith ever again). It also meant freshman McNeil was pressed into service and ended up playing 13 minutes in a Big Ten game which is pretty scary. He had his bad moments, such as the three pointer he air mailed by at least 3 feet, but in general he looked pretty in control with a decent looking jumper and an ability to score in the paint that looked better than I expected. I've been a bit nervous about McNeil, given that he was an FIU recruit who is suddenly on a Big Ten team, but I definitely liked what I saw. I don't expect him to surpass Ahanmisi on the depth chart simply because Mav is a senior, but it wouldn't shock me either.
5. The Fargo-Moorhead Acro Team was awesome as usual. Seriously, just the best half time show anywhere ever. You dopes who prefer Quick Change or those dumb dogs or any of that other crap are seriously, epically stupid. And I hate you.
6. A.J. Hammons is an absolute monster. But you know how many shot attempts he had? Three. I'm feeling generous so I'll give some of the credit for that to Elliott Eliason's defense and the Gopher defensive scheme, but man was he criminally underutilized. There were a couple of times Hammons was in and Eliason was on the bench, meaning Joey King or Oto or Mo were guarding Hammons, and Purdue didn't make any kind of effort to make sure he got a touch. If I'm Purdue he needs to be getting on touch on nearly every possession, but he's actually seventh on the team in percentage of shots taken when he's on the court. If Purdue wants to have any success this season, that needs to change. They probably still won't be able have any success, but that would at least be a start.
7. Offensive creativity seemed to be lacking. Just one game after I wrote about how impressed I was with some of the plays Pitino was drawing up for this team, they seemed to regress a bit. Granted the Gophers scored 82 points so it was working just fine so this isn't really a major complaint, but I really get a kick out of cool looking offensive plays and I didn't see any against Purdue. The only wrinkle I noticed is when the Gophers run a pick and roll, which seems to be nearly every time down (again, not a complaint necessarily) the picker comes off a down screen before heading up to set his pick. Maybe this is common, but I've never noticed it before. I've never watched as closely as I am now, but seemed note worthy.
8. That was some of the worst refereeing I've ever seen down the stretch. I am not one to complain about refs. I recognize the human element, that no ref is out to screw one particular team, and even most bad calls have an element where you could see why the call was missed, but those guys were just brutal today. The stretch where Eliason (what is this, and Eliason blog all of a sudden) got mugged going to the rim by two guys and had no call and the ball given to Purdue followed by an absolute clean block by Eliason (see) that was called a foul because, according to the refs signal, he moved his arms down even though he clearly didn't was horrendous. Unfortunately with Ed Hightower's retirement I don't know the name of any refs anymore, but if I did the guy I'd hate the most would be that little bald guy from today's game. That guy was horrible.
9. Random trapping is good. I'm a big fan of pressure defense. I like a full court press and I love high pressure in the half court, simply because guards are so important and if you keep the pressure up it makes it harder for a team to run their offense (this may be part of the reason why Hammons only had 3 shots). I like trapping even more, and throughout most of the non-conference schedule the Gophers were a pressure team who didn't trap often. Against Purdue they busted out a random half court trap a handful of times, and although I don't remember specifically if it caused any turnovers I'm a big fan of mixing it up. It'll work in a big spot at some point.
10. I still don't really know what to think of this Gophers team. Let me get this straight, they barely lose in a game where Draustin Hollins plays horribly, but then they barely win a game where Draustin Hollins plays about as well as you could ever expect. I suspect the team is more of who we saw against Michigan and the last ten minuets against Purdue, but I like to think they're closer to who we saw against Syracuse and first 30 against Purdue. I really just don't know. It's hard to trust a jump shooting team. I fully believe they're going to win a game they have no business winning when 2-3 guys are running hot, and I know they're going to lose a game they shouldn't when nobody can shoot. Was that the Michigan game? I don't know. Was today the day when everybody was running hot and they still only beat Purdue at home by 3? I don't know. I can't remember the last time I was this unsure about a team's outlook. Oh I've been wrong plenty of times, but I usually at least have an opinion. Not this year, but I know I'm enjoying the hell out of this.
I'm gonna watch Road House now.
Once again, here are 10 things I liked and didn't like:
1. Defense in the first 30 minutes. Now, to be fair, for the first 30 minutes Painter's team looked suspiciously like an old Tubby team (may be a bit of a cheap shot but honestly that's what it looked like), but the Gophers did an excellent job of limiting Purdue, a big reason they opened up nearly a 20 point lead. They kept Purdue out of the paint and turned them into a jump shooting team, which is not a strength of the Boilers. Their offense mainly consisted of swinging the ball around the perimeter and, even when the managed to get it to the man at the free throw line the ball generally came right back out again quickly. A.J. Hammons got a couple of touches down low and was reasonably effective, but the Gophers limited those as well. The zone did what it was supposed to do for 30 minutes, and that was great.
2. Defense in the last ten minutes. At the 9:50 mark, in mid-possession, Painter took a time out. I don't know what he said or how he said it, but from that point on the Boilers did nothing but attack attack attack. They picked up the pace after both misses and makes, and when they did have to settle into the half court there was no more perimeter work, it was all dribble drives - and it worked. Purdue outscored the Gophers 34-20 from that point, and dam near ended up stealing the game. From 9:50 - 2:50, before things got a bit more desperate on their end, they only took 2 three-pointers, preferring to get into the lane, as they should. The Gophers' interior defense is always going to be a concern, and it was again big time at the end of this game.
3. Draustin Hollins got their swerve back. This one is obvious to anybody who either watched the game or glanced at the box score, but one game after both Hollins brothers played the worst game of their career they were back in a big way. Dre scored 17 and had 5 assists, and Austin scored 18 to go with 9 rebounds. Maybe more importantly, both showed the same confidence they had in the past so they aren't suffering any ill effects from being utterly horrible against Michigan. Not that I necessarily expected them to, but then again remember Nick Anderson. It's not exactly a secret that the Gophers need these two in order to win games, so hopefully they got all the horribleness out of their system in that one game.
4. Daquean McNeil looked goodish? Due to Honey Gopher and Malik Smith picking up two fouls each in the first half, causing Pitino to put out some goofy lineups (hopefully we never see McNeil, Ahanmisi, King, Walker, and Smith ever again). It also meant freshman McNeil was pressed into service and ended up playing 13 minutes in a Big Ten game which is pretty scary. He had his bad moments, such as the three pointer he air mailed by at least 3 feet, but in general he looked pretty in control with a decent looking jumper and an ability to score in the paint that looked better than I expected. I've been a bit nervous about McNeil, given that he was an FIU recruit who is suddenly on a Big Ten team, but I definitely liked what I saw. I don't expect him to surpass Ahanmisi on the depth chart simply because Mav is a senior, but it wouldn't shock me either.
5. The Fargo-Moorhead Acro Team was awesome as usual. Seriously, just the best half time show anywhere ever. You dopes who prefer Quick Change or those dumb dogs or any of that other crap are seriously, epically stupid. And I hate you.
6. A.J. Hammons is an absolute monster. But you know how many shot attempts he had? Three. I'm feeling generous so I'll give some of the credit for that to Elliott Eliason's defense and the Gopher defensive scheme, but man was he criminally underutilized. There were a couple of times Hammons was in and Eliason was on the bench, meaning Joey King or Oto or Mo were guarding Hammons, and Purdue didn't make any kind of effort to make sure he got a touch. If I'm Purdue he needs to be getting on touch on nearly every possession, but he's actually seventh on the team in percentage of shots taken when he's on the court. If Purdue wants to have any success this season, that needs to change. They probably still won't be able have any success, but that would at least be a start.
7. Offensive creativity seemed to be lacking. Just one game after I wrote about how impressed I was with some of the plays Pitino was drawing up for this team, they seemed to regress a bit. Granted the Gophers scored 82 points so it was working just fine so this isn't really a major complaint, but I really get a kick out of cool looking offensive plays and I didn't see any against Purdue. The only wrinkle I noticed is when the Gophers run a pick and roll, which seems to be nearly every time down (again, not a complaint necessarily) the picker comes off a down screen before heading up to set his pick. Maybe this is common, but I've never noticed it before. I've never watched as closely as I am now, but seemed note worthy.
8. That was some of the worst refereeing I've ever seen down the stretch. I am not one to complain about refs. I recognize the human element, that no ref is out to screw one particular team, and even most bad calls have an element where you could see why the call was missed, but those guys were just brutal today. The stretch where Eliason (what is this, and Eliason blog all of a sudden) got mugged going to the rim by two guys and had no call and the ball given to Purdue followed by an absolute clean block by Eliason (see) that was called a foul because, according to the refs signal, he moved his arms down even though he clearly didn't was horrendous. Unfortunately with Ed Hightower's retirement I don't know the name of any refs anymore, but if I did the guy I'd hate the most would be that little bald guy from today's game. That guy was horrible.
9. Random trapping is good. I'm a big fan of pressure defense. I like a full court press and I love high pressure in the half court, simply because guards are so important and if you keep the pressure up it makes it harder for a team to run their offense (this may be part of the reason why Hammons only had 3 shots). I like trapping even more, and throughout most of the non-conference schedule the Gophers were a pressure team who didn't trap often. Against Purdue they busted out a random half court trap a handful of times, and although I don't remember specifically if it caused any turnovers I'm a big fan of mixing it up. It'll work in a big spot at some point.
10. I still don't really know what to think of this Gophers team. Let me get this straight, they barely lose in a game where Draustin Hollins plays horribly, but then they barely win a game where Draustin Hollins plays about as well as you could ever expect. I suspect the team is more of who we saw against Michigan and the last ten minuets against Purdue, but I like to think they're closer to who we saw against Syracuse and first 30 against Purdue. I really just don't know. It's hard to trust a jump shooting team. I fully believe they're going to win a game they have no business winning when 2-3 guys are running hot, and I know they're going to lose a game they shouldn't when nobody can shoot. Was that the Michigan game? I don't know. Was today the day when everybody was running hot and they still only beat Purdue at home by 3? I don't know. I can't remember the last time I was this unsure about a team's outlook. Oh I've been wrong plenty of times, but I usually at least have an opinion. Not this year, but I know I'm enjoying the hell out of this.
I'm gonna watch Road House now.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Welcome aboard, Daquein McNeil!
Rich Pitino is on the board! Daquein McNeil, former FIU commit, is following him here to the Gophers, and I am trying to decide how exciting this is. Plenty of background reading on McNeil here from the always excellent Late Night Hoops, so I won't rehash everything, or at least not intentionally, and will try to look at this, like Darth Vader after his helmet was off, with my own eyes.
His ESPN scouting report is positively glowing, describing him as "capable of creating offense off the dribble any time", "capable of getting hot with his jumper", and "a potentially lethal defender" with "good court vision" and "a quick first step." The only real negatives they point out is that he isn't a true point guard, which is fine because everyone else describes him as either a shooting guard or a combo guard, and that he has an inconsistent jumper which pretty much describes most freshman perimeter players.
Their bottom line on him reads as follows, "McNeil has great size, length, quickness, and playmaking ability and consequently the potential to be a very effective lead guard at the next level but must continue to polish his skills and develop his basketball I.Q." Uh, yeah. Sign me up.
Then again, despite being listed as having offers from Louisville and Washington, yet Rivals doesn't have them suggesting that the info from Late Night Hoops about how he had offers fall off might be true. I don't see anything suggesting if it's academic or performance related (although he has said he transferred out of Baltimore to Vermont for academic reasons) so I can't really comment for sure, but it's not all that uncommon for one time highly sought recruit to have his star lose some of it's shine as the years/months go by (see Alex Foster). ESPN rates him as a two star recruit and the 93rd best point guard in the class, while Rivals gives him 3-stars.
So that's what I mean about not sure how excited to be. His style of play sounds like he'll fit right in with what Pitino wants to do, especially the parts about being a potentially lethal defender and being the kind of player who attacks the rim, either to score or to pass. Then again, you have a situation where Pitino needs bodies to fill out the roster, which can lead to sub-par recruits (Maverick -> Hi) and the fact that McNeil may not have had a better offer than Richmond make you wonder if he's basically roster filler who won't ever develop beyond a back-up.
Like everything else this season we are at a point where you just shrug and say who knows. Much as your trust level in Teague reflects how optimistic you were about the Pitino hiring, your trust in Pitino likely affects your optimism on the McNeil signing. One thing is for certain, the Pitino era has now begun.
Also I have a new least favorite kind of driver: the On Ramp Racer. You know this guy. It's rush hour, you're getting on to a freeway and everyone has to stop and form two lines at those lights they have on each side. Generally pretty simple and shockingly organized. Then you get this fucking guy who picks a side, then suddenly realizes if he's in the other lane he'll get to get on the freeway one car early and save himself 15 seconds so he suddenly swerves from one to the other and screws everybody up behind him. And who be mercy unto you if you get two or more of these guys in the same group. It ends up looking like the end of Vegas Vacation but with shitty cars. So hey Mr. On Ramp Racer, next time do everyone a favor and just drive into the ditch which is hopefully filled with alligators and land mines.
His ESPN scouting report is positively glowing, describing him as "capable of creating offense off the dribble any time", "capable of getting hot with his jumper", and "a potentially lethal defender" with "good court vision" and "a quick first step." The only real negatives they point out is that he isn't a true point guard, which is fine because everyone else describes him as either a shooting guard or a combo guard, and that he has an inconsistent jumper which pretty much describes most freshman perimeter players.
Their bottom line on him reads as follows, "McNeil has great size, length, quickness, and playmaking ability and consequently the potential to be a very effective lead guard at the next level but must continue to polish his skills and develop his basketball I.Q." Uh, yeah. Sign me up.
Then again, despite being listed as having offers from Louisville and Washington, yet Rivals doesn't have them suggesting that the info from Late Night Hoops about how he had offers fall off might be true. I don't see anything suggesting if it's academic or performance related (although he has said he transferred out of Baltimore to Vermont for academic reasons) so I can't really comment for sure, but it's not all that uncommon for one time highly sought recruit to have his star lose some of it's shine as the years/months go by (see Alex Foster). ESPN rates him as a two star recruit and the 93rd best point guard in the class, while Rivals gives him 3-stars.
So that's what I mean about not sure how excited to be. His style of play sounds like he'll fit right in with what Pitino wants to do, especially the parts about being a potentially lethal defender and being the kind of player who attacks the rim, either to score or to pass. Then again, you have a situation where Pitino needs bodies to fill out the roster, which can lead to sub-par recruits (Maverick -> Hi) and the fact that McNeil may not have had a better offer than Richmond make you wonder if he's basically roster filler who won't ever develop beyond a back-up.
Like everything else this season we are at a point where you just shrug and say who knows. Much as your trust level in Teague reflects how optimistic you were about the Pitino hiring, your trust in Pitino likely affects your optimism on the McNeil signing. One thing is for certain, the Pitino era has now begun.
Also I have a new least favorite kind of driver: the On Ramp Racer. You know this guy. It's rush hour, you're getting on to a freeway and everyone has to stop and form two lines at those lights they have on each side. Generally pretty simple and shockingly organized. Then you get this fucking guy who picks a side, then suddenly realizes if he's in the other lane he'll get to get on the freeway one car early and save himself 15 seconds so he suddenly swerves from one to the other and screws everybody up behind him. And who be mercy unto you if you get two or more of these guys in the same group. It ends up looking like the end of Vegas Vacation but with shitty cars. So hey Mr. On Ramp Racer, next time do everyone a favor and just drive into the ditch which is hopefully filled with alligators and land mines.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
